Support for socialism "is concentrated among people who don't know what it is"
Even those that speak against it in theory often don't understand WHY it fails. They say things like, "eventually you run out of other people's money". They don't say... where did all this wealth come from? The don't talk about the price system. They don't talk about the knowledge problem. They don't really understand why socialism will never work and why social welfare doesn't tank an economy. It only neuters it and makes people feel better.
I've went back and watched propaganda films during the cold-war about Marxism, Communism, and the USSR. Its pretty pathetic. They focus on the freedom and military threat mostly. Thing is... you can be a non-socialist country and live in a hellscape of tyranny. As someone that grew up during the cold war and watched the wall fall this has confirmed my "lived experience". This failure to teach is why young people fall for this democratic socialism crap. As if the problem was just the wrong people. Or that people didn't vote for it.
Its not hard to bury socialist ideas. If it were taught in government schools it would be dead. If we had entertainment that targeted socialism like it does free-market capitalism it would be a dead idea. But no. Its not. Its propped up by all of these. Its propped up by well meaning Christians even.
I think we fail to realize the all out assault on freedom and responsibility we have lived under for the last 100 years. Envy is used to control us. You aren't responsible for this we are told. You did your part. You voted.
The main reason I think we won't see a stake driven through the heart of socialism is because statists can't accept the truth. They are afraid that their belief system (statism) which the vast majority of them deny as a thing, will be weakened. We can't have anarchy!
Its especially tiresome to see Christians that fall into this thinking. As if the state, a separate man made system is the vehicle for doing the work Jesus commanded the Church to do is one of the biggest failures of our time. Then, on top of that to expect this godless system to drive morals and enforce some kind of cultural pattern. Its absurd. And you see it on the right and the left in Christianity.
You will never get a moral and right society from the state. At best, the state will follow the morals of society or lack thereof. Just as in liberty and responsibility. It starts with us. The plebs.
Even those that speak against it in theory often don't understand WHY it fails. They say things like, "eventually you run out of other people's money". They don't say... where did all this wealth come from? The don't talk about the price system. They don't talk about the knowledge problem. They don't really understand why socialism will never work and why social welfare doesn't tank an economy. It only neuters it and makes people feel better.
I've went back and watched propaganda films during the cold-war about Marxism, Communism, and the USSR. Its pretty pathetic. They focus on the freedom and military threat mostly. Thing is... you can be a non-socialist country and live in a hellscape of tyranny. As someone that grew up during the cold war and watched the wall fall this has confirmed my "lived experience". This failure to teach is why young people fall for this democratic socialism crap. As if the problem was just the wrong people. Or that people didn't vote for it.
Its not hard to bury socialist ideas. If it were taught in government schools it would be dead. If we had entertainment that targeted socialism like it does free-market capitalism it would be a dead idea. But no. Its not. Its propped up by all of these. Its propped up by well meaning Christians even.
I think we fail to realize the all out assault on freedom and responsibility we have lived under for the last 100 years. Envy is used to control us. You aren't responsible for this we are told. You did your part. You voted.
The main reason I think we won't see a stake driven through the heart of socialism is because statists can't accept the truth. They are afraid that their belief system (statism) which the vast majority of them deny as a thing, will be weakened. We can't have anarchy!
Its especially tiresome to see Christians that fall into this thinking. As if the state, a separate man made system is the vehicle for doing the work Jesus commanded the Church to do is one of the biggest failures of our time. Then, on top of that to expect this godless system to drive morals and enforce some kind of cultural pattern. Its absurd. And you see it on the right and the left in Christianity.
You will never get a moral and right society from the state. At best, the state will follow the morals of society or lack thereof. Just as in liberty and responsibility. It starts with us. The plebs.